General Synod of the Church of England
York, 6th – 10th July 2007

Diary Notes by Robert Key MP (Salisbury 407)

(An Official Record prepared by Church House is also available on this website. So is the informal Record written by the Synod Members from the Salisbury Diocese)

Wet weather synod
By no stretch of the imagination would a politician attending a Party Conference describe it as ‘going on retreat’. But that is what it felt like for me, as I left behind in London reshuffles and security threats, by-elections and Party Whips. At York I would exist in a parallel universe where the affairs of the soul are more important than the levers of power or the instruments of government.

I also left behind in London the gallic chaos of the Tour de France – which can only happen because of legislation I introduced as a Transport Minister back in 1994 when Le Tour first came to England.

At King’s Cross I observed that we Brits are becoming more Continental. At first we were relatively content to stand in a sort of old-fashioned queue ‘behind sign C’. When the train was ready for boarding, the order disappeared in a headlong assault on the barrier.

Ninety minutes out of King’s Cross our train (curiously called “The Northern Lights”) was speeding through flooded fields and communities around Doncaster. I came to Yorkshire just the day after a bevy of Ministers who seemed keen not just to share the grief of the victims of flooding but to take the blame too. I don’t get it. I thought this sort of thing was an accident or perhaps an Act of God.

Bishops on floods
Mind you, the Bishop of Carlisle was in trouble for saying we are reaping the consequences of our moral degradation. However, the Bishop of Liverpool said it wasn’t an Act of God, but the consequence of our profligate misuse carbon, so it was our fault not God’s. (I trust neither travelled to York in an Episcopal limousine!)

It is definitely not God’s fault that York University is now the bird-droppings capital of Europe. I suppose the assorted mongrel ducks and geese were once decorative additions to the windy glass and concrete campus. No more! The open plazas at the heart of the university are now no-go areas for people. How sad. Never mind – the sight and the smell drove us indoors to improve our minds and souls.

First up was our Ecumenical Visitor, Mindaugas Sabutis, Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Lithuania. On his second-ever visit to these islands he addressed us in our mother tongue and told us that although most Christians in his country are Roman Catholics, and that Evangelical Lutherans make up 0.006% of the population, Christianity in Lithuania runs deeper than either the EU or NATO and what’s more will be with us for ever!

Out of Order
To a Westminster Parliamentarian, Questions at Synod are outrageous. Our rules say Written Questions must not contain argument, expressions of opinion, inferences, controversy, irony, offence, discourtesy or quotes and must not refer to The Crown or the Royal Family. That would rule out almost all the questions on our Order Paper at York!

Never mind. My early Day Motion on Consecration of Women to the Episcopate, which has to date attracted the signatures of 126 Members of all Parties, got an honourable mention. We also learnt that 21% of churches are not open to the casual visitor, one in twenty is open 24-hours a day, 37% have a kitchen and 44% have a loo.

Saturday started with bible study. Faced with Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians we split into 29 groups of 15 to think about ‘one body, many members’, dealing with difference and broken relationships.

God likes marriage
That set us up for a serious session on the new Marriage Measure. For years the Church’s regulations have failed to keep up our mobile society. We have placed hurdles in the way of people who want to get married in Church, but who have moved away from their original Parishes. Now we can say to them, as one young priest eloquently explained, “God likes marriage – and so do we. Welcome!”

Some were concerned that the new rules would encourage an ‘undesirable’ concentration of weddings in attractive places. So what, others argued. What an opportunity for mission! Not many years down the line we’ll have to change other rules so that the happy couples can bring their children back for Baptism and later be buried there too.

On Saturday afternoon we tackled the thorny question of clergy pensions. We need always to remember how little our clergy get paid. And it is a stipend – a subsistence – not a professional salary. Already 33% of Church Commissioners income is needed to support clergy pensions. It is hard for the Pensions Board, aided by dedicated pensions and financial experts, to explain why they cannot part with millions more from the total assets of £5.36 billion. Sadly but sensibly, Synod agreed to accept expert advice.

What happened next – consideration of Iran, the 2008 Lambeth Conference and the Liturgical Commission – is recorded elsewhere.

Summoned by bells
The bells of York Minster are the most mellifluous I have ever heard. I stood gazing at the Heart of Yorkshire window in the magnificent West Front, wrapped in a musical coat of velvet. How fortunate are the citizens of York! How deprived are the citizens of Salisbury that our belfry was pulled down centuries ago. We are saved only by the campanologists of Salisbury St. Thomas – praise be! The Eucharist was in the very best tradition of cathedral music and the Church of England liturgy.

Returning on the bus to the University I sat next to a representative from Guernsey, who reminded me that in the thirteenth century the Channel Islands were part of the Diocese of Coutances which was briefly attached to the See of Salisbury. The Channel Islands are now attached to the See of Winchester. All the Island parishes are Crown livings. What will happen to them in the constitutional upheavals promised by the Prime Minister? And who will appoint the Bishop of Sodor and Man – who sits in the Tynwald, the oldest known Parliament?

After lunch I listened to the Bishop of Lund in Sweden – Christina Odenberg. She is Sweden’s first female bishop. She breeds horses and was once a successful jockey! When the Church of Sweden voted to ordain women priests, they decided from the start there was no impediment to them becoming bishops in due course. They also decided that no man would be ordained who would not accept and work with women priests and bishops. I wish the Church of England had been as sensible.

Whose rules?
Sunday afternoon was to have been the most difficult debate of this Synod – on the proposed Anglican Covenant. The House of Bishops invited Synod to affirm our willingness to produce a Covenant (rule book) for the Anglican Communion. In the event, all amendments defeated, sycophancy ruled and Synod concurred. To have done otherwise would have been perceived to be unkind to the Primates. I left the Hall disillusioned. This, of course, was not about the Church of England. It was about saving an increasingly parallel church, the Anglican Communion. This will run and run.

This debate underlined the fact that we may be synodically governed, but we are certainly episcopally led!

Sunday evening was rounded off with reports on the Anglican Methodist Covenant and the enriching role people from minority ethnic communities in our country and in our Church.

Over supper, the Royal School of Church Music, now based in Salisbury, talked to representatives from over half the dioceses of England about their plans for functions and training of church musicians. The evening was introduced by the Bishop of Salisbury (RSCM Vice President) and attended by Mark Bonney (Canon Treasurer of Salisbury Cathedral) who is a Council Member of the RSCM.

On Monday Morning we assembled for worship and the Presidential Address. Archbishop Sentamu asked us what we were afraid of. Fear creates its own risks, he told us. Fear shapes the minds and decisions of those who lead nations. Fear leads to false conclusions about Muslims. Are we afraid of schism in the Anglican Communion? No – we should put out into the deep and let down our nets.

Constitutional challenge
Monday afternoon saw a good and well-informed debate on Senior Appointments in the Church. As we considered how we should respond to the shock announcement from No 10 that we are old enough to look after ourselves when it comes to senior appointments, I spoke of the need to steer between the extremes of a self-selecting oligarchy of bishops and congregationalism. I argued that we should build on the networks of intelligence and common sense that have evolved over many years to inform the Prime Minister and the Archbishop of Canterbury. In other words, if it ain’t bust, don’t fix it!

I also argued that we should take the opportunity to consider reforming the way in which our Synodical legislation is handled by Parliament. The archaic machinery of the Ecclesiastical Committee has been superceded in Lords and Commons by our system of Joint Committees of both Houses and that might be a better way of handling our Measures.

On Monday evening I had to leave York for urgent business in Parliament on Tuesday morning. Please find accounts of further business elsewhere.

This had been a roller-coaster of a Synod. From the uphill struggle of the Marriage Measure we had peaked on Senior Appointments and had a gut-wrenching downhill plunge into Anglican Covenant proposals. It had been a Synod with attitude – and all the better for that.

Robert Key
Salisbury